Car-door.



' w. SNEDDONQ v CAR DOOR. v- APPLICATION FILED OCT. 19,1914. 1,152,665.Petented se t. 7,1915.

2 SHEETSSHEET I.

Witnesses Attorneys,

W. SNEDDON.

' CAR DOOR.

' APPLICATION FILED OCT. I9. 1914.

'Pa tentpd Sept. 7, 1915. 2 MEETS-SHEET 2 Inventor,

Witnesses I Attorneys,

ED d liA Pld i hli f @FFEQFQ.

WILLIAM: SHEDDDN, OF DEL RIO, TEXAS.

CAR-DOOR.

Application filed October 19, 1914.

To all whom it may concern Be. it known that 1, WILLIAM SNnoDoN, acitizen of the United States, residing at Del Rio, in the county ofValverde and Stateof Texas, have invented a new and useful Car- Door, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention aims to provide a novel means for slidably mounting a cardoor.

With the above and other objects in view which will appear as thedescription proceeds, the invention resides in the combination andarrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafterdescribed and claimed, it being understood that changes in the preciseembodiment of the invention herein disclosed can be made within thescope of what is claimed without departing from the spirit of theinvention.

In the accompanying drawings :Figure 1 shows in side elevation, a carequipped with a door forming the subject matter of this application;Fig. 2 is a fragmental hori zontal section on the line 22 of Fig. 1;Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the line 33 of Fig. 1, parts beingbroken away; Fig. 4 is a detail enlarged from Fig. 1 and depicting 'thelocking device upon an enlarged scale.

Inthe accompanying drawings there is shown a car comprising a side wall1 having a doorway 2 defined by a front door post 3 and a rear door post4.. The sill of the door is shown at 5 and the lintel appears at 6. Theroof of the car is designated by the reference character 7 and the floorof the car is shown at 8. One of the floor timbers appears at 9. A metalplate 10 is interposed between the side wall 1 of'the car, below thedoorway Fig. 3.

The door proper preferably is fashioned 2 and the sill 5 as clearlyshown in from a sheet of metal bent upon itself as shown at 11 to defineone of the upright edges of the door, towit, the forward edge thereof.By the operation above described,

the inner and outer wings 12 and 14 respectively of the door are formed.Adjacent its forward edge, the door is beveled or inclined as shown at15, for a-purpose to be described hereinafter, this bevel or inclinationshown at 15 being fashioned in the outer wing 14 of the door. interposedbetween the wings 12 Specification of Letters ?atent.

Patented Sept. "2, 1915.

Serial No. 867,445.

the lower edge of the door. Located withinv the U-shapcd filler 18 atthe lower edge of the door are anti-friction devices such as rollers 19,the axles 20 of which are journaled in the side portions of the fillerl7 and in the wings 12 and 1 1 of the door. A car carried trackcoiiperates with the rollers 19 and enters the U-shaped filler 17. Thistrack is preferably in the form of a Z-bar 22, the depending flange 23of which abuts against and is secured to the plate 10, the upstandingflange 21 of-which engages in the tread of the rollers 19. Connectingthe flanges 21 and 23 and spaced from each other are reinforcing webs orbrackets 24:. The coiiperation between the track above described and therollers 19 is such that the door may move transversely, to permit thedoor to be crowded up closely against the wall of the car, when the dooris moved to a closed position.

Secured to the inner wing 12 adjacent the rear edge of the door is astrip 25 embodying an inclined flange 26 adapted to 006perate with aninclined flange 27 constituting a part of a plate or strip 28 insertedand held between the rear post 1 and the side wall 1 of the car asclearly shown in Fig. 2. Intermediate its upright edges,the plate 28 isprovided with a shoulder 29 engaging the exposed, upright edge of thepost 4 to aid in preventing the strip or plate 28 from being crowded tothe left in Fig. 2 when the flange 27 is engaged by the flange 26'on thedoor carried strip 25. It will be obvious from Fig. 2 that when the dooris moved to a closed position, the flanges 26 and 27 coac't to draw thedoor transversely and to press the door against the posts 3 and 4 oragainst some other accessible portions of the wall of the car, dependingupon the specific manner in which the car is built.

in the form of a. Z-bar 30, one flange of which, indicated at 31 issecured to the side wall 1 of the car adjacent the front door post 3.One portion of the Z-bar 30 engages the upright edge of the post 3, asclearly shown in Fig. 2. The flange 32 of the keeper or Z-bar 30 isspaced from the post 3 and is inclined to coiiperate with the beveledportion 15 of the door. When the door is moved to a closed position, thebeveled portion 15 of. the door will coact with the inclined flange 32of the keeper 30 and crowd the door transversely against the car.

A plate 33 is bolted, riveted or otherwise secured to the flange 32 ofthe keeper 30 and carries an eye 34. Fulcrumed as shown at 35,intermediate its ends, upon the do'or is a lever 50 having an upstandingcurved finger 36 which passes through the eye 34. At the angle definedby the finger 36 and the lever proper 50 there is formed an outstandingprojection 37 having an opening 38, shown in Fig. 2. Through the opening38 and through the eye 34 may be placed a car seal (not shown), when theparts of the locking device above described are in the locked positionsshown in Figs. 4 and 2. The lever 50 's offset as shown at 39 near itsfree end to c ear a ratchet plate 42 which is secured to the outer wing14 of the door. The ratchet plate 42 is provided with teeth 41 adaptedto be engaged by a lip 40 projecting from the lever 50. The lever 50preferably is slightly resilient, to enable the lip 40 to cooperateproperly with the teeth 41 on the ratchet plate 42. When the lip 40 isengaged with the ratchet teeth 41, the finger 36 on the lever will beheld engaged with the eye 34 as clearly shown in Fig. 4.

Secured to the outer face of the lintel 6 is an outer guard 43overhanging the outer face of the door adjacent the upper edge thereof.The outer guard 43 includes a flange 44 bound between the roof 7 and thelintel 6 and, if desired, the flange 44 may be perforated, as shown, topermit the passage of the nails whereby the roof 7 is held to the lintel6. The outer guard 43 embodies an upright flange 45 and an outstandingflange 48.

E An inner guard 46 is shown, and the lower edge of this guard projectsdownwardly into the trough-shaped recess defined in the upper edge ofthe door by the U-shaped filler 18; The upper flange 49 of the innervguard 46 isengaged between the portion45 of the outer guard and thelintel 6. At the point of juncture between the upper and lower flangesof the inner guard 46, the same is flexed laterally to form a shoulder47 engaging the outer guard at the angle defined by the parts 45" and 48thereof.

It is to be noted, referring particularly to Fig. 2, that when the dooris in closed position, the door is held against the outer face 15 and 32upon the one hand and the parts 26 and 27 upon the other hand, theseelements being located along the upright front and rear edges of thedoor. Therefore, should the cargo shift and press against the door, theoutward pressure is taken care of by the parts above mentioned, and isnot carried into the door supporting means.

When the right hand end of the lever 50 is elevated, to break theengagement between the finger 36 and the eye 34, a slight movement ofthe door to the right, referring to Fig. 2 is produced, owing to thefact that the curved finger 36 bears against the eye 34 during theoperation above described. Therefore, when the car door is unlocked, thedoor at the same time is moved slightly to the right and the engagementbetween the parts 26 and 27 upon the one hand and 15 and 32 upon theother hand is broken. I

. Although the structure herein disclosed has been depicted asconstituting a part of a wooden car, it will be obvious to those skilledin the art that the invention is applicable equally to cars of steeldonstruction. The device is of use either uponia freight car or upon astock car. The constituent material out of which the door is formed maybe corrugated or otherwise shaped, these details lying well within theskill of a mechanic and requiring neither extended description norspecific illustration, since the utility and the pateutability of thestructure is not thereby affected. I

The outer guard 43 which is located at the top of the door prevents rainor snow from beating in across the upper edge of the door. This resultis promoted, further, by reason of the fact that the inner guard 46extends downwardly into the trough-shaped recess defined in the upperedge of the door by the filler 18. The door, therefore, is substantiallyweatherproof, about its entire periphery, it being observed that theupright flange 21 on the lower track extends well into the recessdefined in the lower edge (if the door by the filler 17.

N oticc should be taken of the fact that a patent maturing out of thepresent application will confer no rights as t'othe latch mechanismcomprising the lever-50 and cooperating parts, this portion of thedevice constituting a separate'and distinct finven' having a doorway; aslidable door for the doorway; car carried means engaging the lower edgeof the door to support the same izii for sliding movement; an innerguard semy own; I have hereto aflixed my signature cured to the car, thedoor havinga recess in in the presence of two Witnesses. the upper edge,in which the inner guard is received; and an outer guard on the car, theWILLIAM SNEDDON' 5 outer guard overlapping the outer face of Witnesses:

the door adjacent itsupper edge. G. W. MENEFEE,

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as J. S. GETHING.

